His Poor Little Rich Girl (14 page)

‘I want you,’ she said, clutching at him. ‘I think I’ve always wanted you.’

He took her hands in one of his and removed them from his chest. ‘No, Rachel.’

She frowned at him. ‘But you want me. I know you do. You’re surely not going to deny it?’

‘No. Of course I am not going to deny it.’ ‘Then … why?’

He moved away from her, spreading the fingers of one hand to comb through his hair. His expression closed over but she could see a tiny nerve pulsing at the side of his mouth as if the control he was harnessing was not quite under his command.

‘Alessandro?’

‘Leave it, Rachel,’ he said.

‘Did I do something wrong?’ she asked.

He gave her a rueful movement of his lips and then reached out and touched her cheek with his fingertips. ‘No, you did nothing wrong.’

Rachel put her hand over his. ‘Is it your illness?’ she asked softly. ‘Are you worried you—?’

His brows snapped together and he pulled his hand out from under hers. ‘I said just leave it, Rachel,’ he said tightly.

Rachel swallowed. ‘I’m sorry.’

He let out a breath, which relaxed his tight expression. ‘Don’t apologise,’ he said. ‘You’ve only been here a couple of days. For now I would like simply to spend time getting to know you as a person. I have just invested a large sum of money into your business. I want to know everything there is to know about you.’

‘There’s not much to tell,’ Rachel said.

‘I am sure you are underselling yourself,’ Alessandro said. ‘For instance, I did not know you could cook. What other talents do you have now that you didn’t have before?’

‘They’re not really talents,’ Rachel said. ‘More like interests, I guess you would say.’

‘Such as?’

‘I love wandering around art galleries and museums,’ she said. ‘I once spent the whole day in The Victoria and Albert Museum in London.’

‘When did you visit London?’ Alessandro asked.

‘A couple of years ago,’ she said. ‘It was after my father lost everything. I wanted to escape for a while.’

‘How long were you abroad?’

‘Two months,’ Rachel said. ‘I went to Paris too. I spent days and days wandering around there. It’s such a beautiful city.’

‘It can be a very lonely city on your own,’ he said. ‘It is best to be there with a lover.’

‘I am sure you have been there many times with many lovers,’ Rachel said.

‘I know Paris very well,’ he answered with a ghost of a smile. ‘I will look forward to sharing it with you next week.’

Rachel tried not to think of all the beautiful women he had escorted all over Europe. She’d bet he had not rejected their advances the way he had hers just now. Her doubts and insecurities haunted her all over again. Craig had berated her so often on how she turned him off. It was hard to know if Alessandro was experiencing the same turn off or whether he was still struggling with the limitations from his illness. Either way she felt ashamed about admitting so openly how much she wanted him. It gave him so much more power over her.

‘You didn’t think of coming to Italy during that trip?’ Alessandro asked.

She looked at his expression but couldn’t read it. ‘I did think of it. I had heard you had become successful over here. But I didn’t think you would want to see me after what I did.’

‘So you think I should have forgiven you by now, do you, Rachel?’ he asked, still with that unfathomable look on his face.

‘I think being bitter doesn’t help anyone in the long run,’ she said. ‘I have many regrets over the past. But I like to think I have put in place steps that will stop me making the same mistakes I did back then.’

His dark eyes held hers for a lengthy moment. ‘I guess the next two and a half weeks will prove that one way or the other, will they not?’

‘I want to make amends, Alessandro,’ she said. ‘I really do.’

He didn’t answer immediately. She watched as he rose from the sofa and reached for his crutches. ‘Goodnight, Rachel,’ he said. ‘I will see you in the morning.’

Rachel got to her feet, her hands going to a twisted knot in front of her body. He was dismissing her again, showing her he was not the lovesick young man of the past. He was all sophistication and control now. He had kissed her but he had so easily pulled away while her body still hummed and throbbed like a tuning fork struck too hard.

‘Goodnight,’ she said, her voice coming out soft and husky, but he had already turned and left the room.

W
HEN
Rachel came downstairs the next morning Lucia was bustling about in the kitchen. She looked up from her task of brewing coffee and smiled. ‘Signor Vallini told me you are staying on for the rest of the month,’ she said. ‘That is very good. It will be good for him to have company. He needs to be distracted from work. He works too hard. No wonder he got sick. I tell him all the time. All work no play makes for a very out-of-balance life.’

‘He’s certainly very driven,’ Rachel said.

‘You knew him before,
sì?’
Lucia asked.

‘Yes, did he tell you?’

Lucia chuckled. ‘He didn’t need to tell me. I am not blind. I see the sparks that fly.’

‘He hates me,’ Rachel said with a slump of her shoulders. ‘We were dating for a short time five years ago but I ended up engaged to someone else.’

‘Ah, now it all makes sense,’ Lucia said.

‘There isn’t a day that’s passed that I haven’t regretted what I did,’ Rachel said. ‘I was too young to see what I was throwing away. If we’d had more time together things might have been so different.’

‘He will forgive you in time. He is a passionate man. It is the Italian blood in him. He is proud too. Very proud.’

‘Is that coffee for him?’ Rachel asked, pointing to the tray the housekeeper was setting up.

‘Yes,’ Lucia said, handing it over the counter. ‘He is in the study.’

The door of the study was closed so Rachel had to balance the tray on one bent knee in order to free her hand to knock on it.

‘Entrare.’

She entered the room and Alessandro looked up from his computer screen. ‘Where’s Lucia?’ he asked.

‘I thought I’d give her a hand,’ Rachel said. ‘Where would you like this?’

He waved a dismissive hand to a side table near the window overlooking the gardens. ‘Leave it over there,’ he said, returning his gaze to his computer screen.

Rachel placed the tray where he said and came to stand by his left shoulder. ‘What are you working on?’ she asked.

He looked at her irritably. ‘Don’t you have things of your own to do?’ he asked.

Rachel stood her ground. ‘Why are you being so prickly this morning? Did you get out on the wrong side of the bed or something?’

His dark blue eyes clashed with hers, a tussle of wills, a heated exchange, and the unmistakable sexual tension building with each pulsing second. Almost without realising she was doing it Rachel reached out with her hand, a butterfly touch to the lean shape of his jaw. Her soft skin snagged on the masculine stubble even though he had shaved that morning. She trailed a finger down to his mouth, outlining his lips, top and bottom, all the while feeling her stomach dip and dive as his eyes darkened immeasurably.

‘What do you think you are doing?’ Alessandro asked in a voice that sounded deep and scratchy.

‘I’m not sure …’ Her hand fell away as her creamy cheeks bloomed with a soft tide of pink.

Alessandro captured her hand and brought it back to his mouth, his lips moving against the tips of her fingers, watching as her grey-green eyes flared with desire. It pleased him that she wanted him. It was part of the plan: to make her want him and then walk away from her the way she had done to him. Making love with her was something he had dreamed of for years. He dreamed of the silk of her skin moving against his, the movement of her lips, the way she met his tongue with hers, dancing around it until she finally capitulated. Their kiss last night had almost undone him. He wanted to kiss her again. He wanted to touch her and caress her until she remembered only his touch, no one else’s. He wanted her like a force that came from somewhere so deep inside him he had no idea how to turn it off. It consumed him. He had lain awake last night burning with need, his body hot and hungry for her and only her. But he was not sure if he could trust his body just yet. What if he couldn’t perform as she hinted at last night? That would be the ultimate humiliation and one he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t use against him once the six months’ confidentiality clause was up.

He kept her hand in his, resting it on the top of his thigh, his other arm going around her to bring her closer so she could see the computer screen. ‘I am working on a new development in Florence,’ he said, ‘a refurbishment and overhaul of an old hotel that has been badly managed. It is a big project.’

‘It looks it,’ she said. ‘It looks like a good position.’

‘Yes, location is everything, of course.’

He could smell her perfume and the fragrance of her hair.
He could feel the warmth of her hand where it rested on his thigh, burning into his flesh, making his blood pound to fill him. It was exhilarating to feel the nerves come to throbbing life. Maybe his doubts were unwarranted. His body felt as alive as it had ever been, maybe even more so. He clicked on a few more properties for her to see to distract himself from pulling her into his arms. ‘This is one I did in Madrid, and this one in Sicily.’

‘The decor is wonderful,’ she said. ‘Do you have a team of interior designers?’

‘Yes, I have a lot of very hard-working staff in the corporation,’ Alessandro said. ‘But I do a lot of the groundwork myself.’

She looked at him again. ‘It sounds like you work very hard.’

‘It’s the only way to get ahead.’

She looked down at her hand resting on his thigh. ‘Alessandro …’

He swivelled in the chair so she was in between his thighs, trapped by him. He felt the increasing strength in his muscles. Had her presence here awoken those weakened nerves? For weeks he had struggled with his exercises and yet within a couple of days of having her here his body had come to life in a way he had not thought possible. He burned for her. He ached and burned to possess her, to feel her wrap herself around him, to be his in the most elemental way possible. But while he craved physical closeness with her there was no way he was ever going to allow her close emotionally. He had to keep thinking of her as a gold-digger even if she had changed. It was his armour against her.

‘What is it you want, Rachel?’ he asked. ‘More money? Is that why you are offering yourself to me on a platter? You
want to build up your coffers a little bit more now you can see how rich I am?’

Her eyes widened in affront and she tried to pull out of his hold but he kept his thighs firm against hers. ‘Why do you always misread my motives?’ she said. ‘I’m not offering myself, not like that. I thought … I don’t know what I thought. Last night when you kissed me.’

‘You think you want me,’ Alessandro said. ‘But it’s the money you really want.’

Her face coloured up, hot and angry, the grey in her eyes like lightning flashes in amongst the green. ‘You think I would sleep with you just because you’re rich and powerful? Is that the type of woman you think I am?’

Alessandro gave her a cynical smile. ‘I know exactly the type of woman you are. You are intent on success. If you have to sleep your way to the top you will do it.’

She curled her shapely top lip at him. ‘Is that what you did, Alessandro?’ she asked. ‘Did you sleep with a bunch of rich women to get where you are today? Is that how you did it? Did you prostitute yourself with any old rich hag to—?’

‘Silenzio!’
He pushed himself upright in anger, his barked command ringing in the air.

Rachel took an unsteady step backwards but her hip caught the edge of the desk. She winced in pain and lost her footing. Alessandro reached out to stop her from falling but it meant he had to lift his hands off the desk where he had placed them for balance.

It all seemed to happen so fast and yet each moment was like a freeze frame of a slow-motion film in her brain. She could feel herself going down when Alessandro’s strong hands gripped her, but, because he couldn’t totally rely on his legs, the weight of him coming down tipped her further off balance.
But rather than land heavily on her, he somehow twisted his body at the last minute and cushioned her fall. She fell on top of him, the air knocked right out of her lungs, her hair hanging over her face, her startled gasp of shock the only sound in the sudden silence.

‘Are you all right?’ Alessandro asked, his chest rising and falling.

‘Y-yes … are you?’ Rachel asked, pushing up on her hands to look down at him.

‘I’m fine,’ he said, taking a deep breath. ‘Sorry I couldn’t stop you from falling.’

‘It wasn’t your fault.’

‘I forgot about my legs,’ he said with a rueful grimace. ‘They’re getting stronger every day but not strong enough to make such sudden movements.’

‘It must be very frustrating for you,’ Rachel said, somehow not able to move from where she was lying over him. She felt magnetised to him. She could feel his body below hers, every delicious male inch of him swelling in attraction.

‘It is immensely frustrating,’ he said, looking at her mouth.

Rachel moistened her lips. She made a move to get up but one of his hands went to her lower back and pressed her down against him. She felt the kicking motion of her heart and the answering echo deep and low in her body when that very same hand glided the entire length of her spine to the nape of her neck. Every sensory nerve went on overdrive, tingles racing across her scalp as his other hand pushed back the curtain of her hair, anchoring it over her left shoulder.

‘Stay right there,’ he said in a deep, rough around the edges tone.

Rachel felt her insides clench with desire. This was crazy. She was not the sort of girl to succumb to physical lust like
this but her body seemed to have other ideas. It was thrumming with a need so strong she felt every nerve in her body quivering with anticipation of sensory release. ‘Alessandro, please believe me when I say this is not about the money,’ she said. ‘It’s never been about the money. I’ve never felt this way before.’